i wrote a second quote around the same period and it was one from mary catherine basin the daughter of margaret meacham and it says we have stretched midlife so long it has become like a run-on sentence in desperate need of punctuation. i needed to get a little bit about punctuation. a., max was probably too little and. that is what i needed. i went to my board of directors and i asked him if i could take a sabbatical. and i happily agreed. i think maybe they were feeling that i was sliding a little bit as well and i began making very grand plans. in fact i decided to go to the opposite end of the year to australia to take a big trip for three months with my wife and our two young children. and i began the process of accumulating guide books to sydney, melbourne and the outback in that pile started growing higher as the days leading up to the trip began growing shorter and finally i reach the point where i had absolutely no desire to go to australia and spent three months in a hotel room with two screaming children then two and four years old. in fact the sabbatical was what i had to d